


Too Young for War

by Captainrexsbiggestho



Series: Fortunate Sons [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Troopers - Freeform, Clones, Shock, Vietnam War AU, battles, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 12:55:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16305638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captainrexsbiggestho/pseuds/Captainrexsbiggestho
Summary: Tup is involved in his first ever battle, how will he deal with it?





	Too Young for War

Tup had never blistered on his feet like this before, but he tried to ignore the pain, with Dogma right beside him they kept on Rex’s heels. Tup kept his eyes on the rice fields around them, occasionally glancing at the back of his older brothers head, just to make sure he was still keeping up, he didn’t want to admit that he was just about shaking in his boots, but he couldn’t let it show, not in front of all these older guys, especially Rex, he had to prove himself. They had already crossed two rivers, he was soaked from the waist down, his fatigues heavy as he walked, the rifle in his arms seemed to only get heavier as they walked another mile, they had been going all day and it was starting to show on Tup.

Suddenly the Captain put his hand up in signal for everyone to stop. “Take a breather!” he called out to the rest of the men along the track, they seemed to have decent cover. Tup greedily gulped water from his canteen, “Tup, take it easy on that you’ll make yourself sick.” Rex took the canteen from his hand and put it back in his pack for him. When he went back to facing Tup he stopped and eyed the teen up and down. “Right, boots off now.” He ordered.

“Rex please don’t, I’m fine.” Tup tried to fend his older brother off.

“No choice here soldier.” Rex had already grabbed Tup by the foot and was undoing the boot laces. There were a few leeches where Tups sock had been but that wasn’t unusual, it was the aggravated blisters that Rex was worried about. “Tup you need to look after your feet while you’re here, if this gets infected you could lose a foot.” Rex cleaned it up the best he could before helping Tup up.

They continued walking for a few more miles, they were nearly at the exfil point, where the choppers would pick them up and Tup could get some well needed rest. Tup hadn’t a clue what had happened but in the blink of an eye he had been thrown into an irrigation ditch and there was smoke everywhere.

“Tup pick up that gun and shoot!” someone said from beside him, breaking through the ringing in his ears, and he did, he didn’t even know what he was shooting at, he heard a bullet whizz past his ear, even felt the searing heat from it, there was someone shooting at them from the cleared rice paddy. He tried his hardest to aim for the odd glimpse he could catch of them, but they were moving too quickly. He kept firing, kept replacing his magazine, the rifle was hot in his hands, his shoulder numb from the recoil, the scent of explosives and discharged rounds burnt into his nose, his brain rewired to its basic instincts. _Survive._

“Tup get out of there!” he heard Rex call out at him, then a strong hand grabbing the back of his pack and dragging him behind cover. Rex crouched next to him, Ricky the radio operator was crouched by him, as rex held the hand piece to his ear and called in an airstrike. A moment later, Tup was deafened by the screeching of low flying jets, and the once rice paddy was incinerated. His eyes went wide as he watched the inferno, everything in front of him had just been _obliterated,_ but the firing had ceased, it was now replaced with screams of wounded men, Tup felt like his feet were glued to the ground, he couldn’t believe the destruction he had just bear witness to, there were young men on the ground, some were even calling for their mothers. He was snapped out of his reverie by the slapping sound of incoming choppers. _Dogma._ He had to find Dogma, he had lost sight of him in the scuffle, Tup desperately searched for Dogma through the mess, eventually finding him sitting on a rock, head in his hands, he was mostly unscathed bar the graze he had gotten in the shoulder.

The two waited for the wounded to be extracted first, it was on dark when the last of the choppers came in, they were lucky enough to have Hardcase piloting for them, where his usual grin was there was a look of grim determination, Rex patted the two on the shoulders, careful of Dogma’s fresh injury. Tup stared out the open doors, where his feet rested on the landing skids, he watched as the orange tracer bullets whizzed past, undisturbed by the closeness of them.

Back at base he limped off the chopper, the pain in his feet had caught up with him now the adrenaline had subsided. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Tup I know that was rough for you, go to the medical tent, and get those feet looked at, then see me in my tent, whatever you’re feeling I don’t want you bottling it up, or you’ll go insane here.” Tup did as he was told, later in the night he wandered over to Rex’s tent, the moment he saw his older brother he burst into tears, he was only 16 and had just witnessed war first hand. “I want to go home.” He sobbed into his brother’s shoulder.

“I know Tup, I know.”


End file.
